Pursuit of love
by swtyjoy
Summary: Lothiriel does not take it well when her father announces her engagment. She takes flight and Eomer plans on tracking her down and showing her how great his love can be.
1. Chapter 1

I don't own anything but the plot. Please enjoy J

I knew it was immature. I knew it was not particularly my brightest idea. I knew it wasn't safe, but in the heat of my most desperate moment it was the only option I had. I did the first thing that I thought could save my from my impending doom. I ran. My impending doom was presented to my by none other than my beloved father, Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth.

"Daughter, I have some wonderful news for you." He said with a smile.

His eyes told me otherwise. They peered at me with concern. I gracefully took my seat and watched him pace in front of me.

" Yes father? What is it?" I politely inquired.

"Well, as you know we have always had a …well unsteady relationship with the kingdom of Rohan. The good news as we have made amends through a peace treaty. I have been in correspondence with the King of Rohan as of late and we have come together in agreement,"

I looked up at him with a confused smile. Why was he telling me this?

"That's wonderful Father! A new friendship. Father, if you don't mind me asking, what does this have to do with me?"

"Well, I am getting to that darling. Um well you see, do you know much about King Eomer?" He asked without looking at me. His gaze was steadily out the window.

"Well, not much but some rumors. Not all of them are good. I've heard he is a noble King who rules Rohan with an iron fist. I've also heard that he is a… a bit of a barbarian. But that's all gossip and second hand talk… why?"

"As, I've said we have been make compromises and restoring a once shaky friendship. Basically, I have decided daughter, that to seal the deal, you and King Eomer …are to be married. You two would be the perfect match and it would unite our two kingdoms."

His words hit me hard. Married? Me? To this Rohan barbarian king? I've never even meet him! How dare my father! How dare he ship me off as a peace offering. My hands started shaking. Out of rage and out of fear. No. I am not marrying someone I don't know, let alone someone I do not love.

"Eomer is on his way here. He will be here in two days. He is excited to meet you dear. He will come for you and we will all travel back down to Rohan and have the wedding! Are you not pleased dear?" He had finally turned around to look at me. I threw myself up from my chair in rage.

"Pleased? Pleased! How could I be pleased? You.. You just throw me away to some brute so that in turn you will have another kingdom at your beck and call? Father, how could you? How could you just toss me away from my home! I don't want to leave. And I don't want to marry! I do not love this man father. No, I will not yield to your wishes."

Father grasped my by the shoulders and looked down into my eyes.

"Lothiriel, you will do as I say. You will marry this man, you will do it for me and for your people. Act your age daughter and obey me." With that he embraced me and kissed my cheek goodbye. I sat down in the chair and placed my face in my hands. My father's mind was obviously made up. And so was mine. I would flee. And I would flee tonight.

Two days later~~~

"So let me make sure I understand Prince, your daughter, my betrothed, has just disappeared and no one knows where she is? No one has seen her in two days, and you all did not think that maybe she could have run away?" Eomer said in a firm voice.

"Yes, I gave her the news two days ago. I did not think she was that upset. Not that she is not ecstatic about marrying-"

Eomer threw his hand up to cut off the worried father.

"She is obviously not excited so do not try and lead me to believe so. Give me a second to think things out, Prince Imrahil."

Eomer was beside himself. He arrived a mere hour before into this mess. When Imrahil had come to him with this arrangement he was hesitant. In fact, Eowyn had talked him into it. It wasn't that he didn't want a beautiful wife who was more than capable of running a kingdom. He had heard stories of the serene beauty that was Dol Amroth's only princess. The problem was the same reason all these men had gathered. He did not want to force some girl into marrying him. He had never even meet her. That is the sole reason he had traveled up to her home. He wanted a chance to get to know her. A chance to woo her. And now that chance was gone. Eomer sat and ran his hands through his hair. After ten minutes, Eomer had come to a decision.

"I have a plan. And I would like to do it my way, Prince. I am a skilled warrior and a very skilled tracker. If we could find out were she was planning to go, I can hunt her down and bring her back. But I want to go by myself."

"Father, no. Do not let this man disgrace our sister's honor by hunting her down unescorted. You are not married to Lothiriel yet Eomer King." Stated Elphir Lothiriel's Brother.

"Lothiriel is betrothed to be mine. I do not have to uphold my end of the offer, Prince, if that is what you want. I could just go home-" Eomer's threat was cut off.

"No, ignore my oldest son. He is overprotective of my dear daughter. I give my permission to go. In fact, I will send you with a letter of my blessing to give to her when you find her. Bring her back to me, Eomer King."

"Father, I think I might now a person who knows where Lothie went." Declared Amrothos.

After finding Lothiriel's chamber maid Ren, Eomer knew that his fleeing fiancé had left with a caravan to the Bay of Befalas. Eomer readied Firefoot and left that night to hunt down Lothiriel.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two! I hope you like it. I am a big fan of our dashing Eomer J.

Lothiriel pov

I am very proud of myself. Very proud. I managed to sneak away from the castle, convince a caravan to take me on there journey and get far away without anyone realizing who I am and what I am doing. I have been traveling for three days with this caravan. They are all very sweet and very ignorant to who I am. I am pretty sure they are not from my land. It's been hard, though. I've been wearing a cloak and have kept my hair up in a bun just in case. My hair is my biggest giveaway. I have waist length dark brown, almost black hair. Unlike many family members my hairs is a mess of loose ringlets. Many people refer to it when I pass by. I am not bragging, in fact at times I just want to chop it off. If I did though I feel like I would loose some sort of protection. It's almost like I would be naked without it. Any ways, right now we are stopped at a sweet little inn because one of the young boys, I think his name is Braydon, has come down with a sickness. The leader of our strange rag tag group has decided it would be best if we all rest for three days. So basically I have been on edge because I know by know my family has realized that I am missing and they are all probably on the hunt for me. What a mess I have made.

To keep myself busy while staying at the inn I have been helping this sweet lady named Esther with her sewing.

"Now dear, I know we've been here two days but must you be so restless? Come sit down, have some tea with me." I did as she said.

"Esther do you know when we are going to leave? I am really tired off this inn. I am ready to be on the road again." I said as I picked up a shirt that needed mending.

"Listen Linwe, we will be out of here when we are out of here. I have something interesting to talk about. That man over there drinking ale has had his eye on you the moment you came in here."

I slowly looked over to the man she was referring to. She was right. This man had wavy caramel colored hair. He reminded of me of a fierce lion. He did look like he wanted to devour me. Color flew to my cheeks when we made eye contact. I looked back down to my needle work and turned my body more towards Esther. I had never really dealt with the attention of men before. My brothers were all very overprotective of me and I have never really been interested in someone before. I can handle my brothers any day, but when it came to passion and love I was beginner. Curiosity got the better of me and I glanced quickly back at the man. When I did I was surprised to see his chair empty and his cup still sitting were he had just been. I shrugged my shoulders and started up another conversation with Esther.

Later that night

"Linwe were are you going silly girl?" Esther questioned.

"I just remembered where I left my book, Esther, it's in the wagon. I'll be right back." I pulled myself out of our shared room and walked barefoot out into the dinning hall. Men were still drinking the night away and a couple of scantily clad women were giggling and entertaining the men. I sighed my disapproval and went out the door into the night. I pulled my cloak around me tighter and looked around to see if anyone was lurking around. Not seeing anyone, I dashed through the wet grass to the wagon. I stuck my head and began my search for my book. My hands finally grasped the leather and pulled the book up to my nose. I have always loved the smell of books. I inhaled the sweet smell and placed the book upon my bosom. Suddenly I was pulled back by my hips into a hard body. A scream flew from my lips that was quickly muffled by a huge hand. I began to struggle and kick. My elbow flew down into my captors gut. His grip loosened and I took off. The man easily caught up with me and tackled me to the ground.

"Help! Help me!" I shouted.

"Hush woman, listen to me. Shh." He pulled me up from the ground and pushed me up against the wall of the inn. One of his hands went over my mouth and the other one pinned my hands over my head. I began to try and buck his huge body off of my little one. He grunted and used his hips to grind me into the wall.

"Listen, I am not going to hurt you. I am going to remove my hand from your mouth but you must not yell, understood?"

I shook my head yes and he slowly pulled his hand away. I began to scream again but instead of slapping his hand over me again he surprised me by yelling,

"Lothiriel, stop this instant. I am not going to hurt you. Trust me."

I was so shocked that I stopped yelling and stared at this man. Instead of being smart and denying that I was the runaway princess, I blew my cover.

"How… how down you know my name? Let go of me this instant."

"Your father sent me… I am .. I'm a guard of King Eomer, he sent me to find you and bring you back to him. We are going to calmly go talk to leader of the caravan and tell him that you are coming back with me. Okay?" The man backed up off my body a little but put his hands on the wall behind me.

"No. I do not want to go back. You- you don't understand." I squeaked out. I ducked my head under the man's arms and walked back towards the inn. He caught up and grabbed my elbow.

"Look, I am just following orders. Come on, we are going back." I huffed angrily as the man pulled me into the inn and walked me over to the table the leader of the caravan was sitting at. He pushed me gently into a seat and sat down. In the light I could see that the soldier my father and betrothed had sent was the lion man watching me earlier.

"Are you the leader of the caravan?" My captor asked in a gruff voice.

"Yes indeed I am. How may I help you sir?"

"Sir, you see this girl is Princess Lothiriel of Dol Amroth and I am soldier who was charged with returning her safely to her family. Here is a letter from Prince Imrahil explaining the situation. I hope you understand sir, that I must take Lothiriel with me."

The leader shook his drink around in his cup and took a big sip. I fidgeted with the skirt of my dress. The leader looked down skimmed the note and said,

"How do I know that this is all true?"

"Look this letter bares the seal of the royal family and Lothiriel will tell you herself that this is true."

They both turned and looked at me and I blushed. I slowly realized that lying to the leader was not an option my captor was giving me.

"You have acted like a child enough, Princess, tell the truth." Chided the lion like man. I sighed and looked at my lap embarrassedly.

"Yes it is true, I am Imrahil's only daughter." I muttered.

"I knew you looked familiar," Mumbled the leader, "Alright, I leave the girl in your charge. Sorry for the trouble." The leader got up bowed his head towards me and made his way to the bedchambers.

"Now that issue has been dealt with, we shall make our leave. Please go gather your things and we will make haste to your home." The soldier got up and waited for me to get moving. I crossed my arms over my chest and pouted.

"Listen, princess, your father and betrothed have given me permission to use force if necessary." He loomed over me and I looked up into his dark brown eyes.

"If you think you intimidate me, you are poorly mistaken."

I got up and stomped down the hallway to my room. I gave a quick explanation to Esther and said my goodbyes. I grabbed my pack and stomped back down the hallway were the soldier was waiting. He ushered me outside towards a huge, monstrous, war horse. I looked up at the horse and he looked down at me. He gave a neighing noise and nudged me with his wet nose. I smiled, but was still a bit frightened at the idea of riding this beast. Hands were suddenly on my waste and I was lifted easily up onto the horse.

"You need to eat more, you are tiny." Muttered the soldier.

"No one asked your opinion…sir. And I do not like being man handled." The man laughed and pulled himself up into the saddle behind me. Least to say, I was a bit unnerved. I had never had a man who was not family this close to me. I felt utterly consumed by his person. I wiggled in the seat to gain more room. The man let out a breathy groan. I tensed and slouched forward.

"Easy there princess," his hot breath whispered in my ear. My body pulsed and I turned as red as a ripe tomato. I cleared my throat and asked,

"What's you name anyway? And why must we travel at night?"

"My name is uh Gamlin and we are only traveling for a couple hours and then we will make camp." He kicked his horse and off we went. We were going back to my home. We were also going back to my future husband.


End file.
